Correlation among retinal thickness, optic disc, and visual field in glaucoma patients and suspects: a pilot study

To correlate losses of retinal thickness in the perifoveal area in glaucoma as measured by the Retinal Thickness Analyzer (Talia Technology Ltd, Israel) with optic nerve and visual field changes in glaucoma patients and suspects.

Observational case series of 55 consecutive patients from the Glaucoma Service who either presented with a diagnosis of glaucoma or were referred for evaluation of suspected glaucoma. The Retinal Thickness Analyzer (Talia Technology, Ltd.) was used to obtain retinal thickness maps. Retinal thickness analysis, visual field testing, and stereophotography of the optic nerve head were performed, and a glaucoma specialist who was masked to patient status and identity data randomly graded the level of severity of each parameter. Spearman rank correlations were used to assess the relationships among the three numerical measures.

Retinal thickness losses correlated more strongly with severity of optic nerve head cupping (r = 0.75), whereas both of these measures correlated less strongly with the severity of visual field loss (r = 0.54).

Retinal thickness measurements at the posterior pole provide another measure of neural loss in glaucoma, and may help in the clinical assessment of optic nerve cupping. However, there are limitations of the technology that must be considered.